The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has claimed an instant success with its new internet television platform iView, with 58,000 people visiting the site in its first 24 hours of operation.

The Gruen Transfer's Wil Anderson(Credit: ABC)

The broadcaster unveiled iView on Wednesday night in Sydney, saying it would broadcast six channels online, allowing people to watch a variety of ABC shows on demand, with more channels to be available in future.

In a statement released today, the ABC said the iView homepage had recorded a total of 58,000 visits by midnight on Thursday, along with 130,000 views. More than 2.3 terabytes of files were transferred from the ABC secure server to viewers.

"This confirms our belief that Australians want quality content on a variety of platforms and the ability to watch this content at a time that suits them," said the broadcaster's director of television, Kim Dalton. "We are confident that they will appreciate the choice that ABC iView gives them."

Internet service provider iiNet has announced plans to support the ABC's service by excluding iView downloads from customers' monthly download quota.